Hellllppppp

Just took these pics today (nothing special, but I was bored, lol), your comments and criticisms welcome as usual.

One thing that worries me is the amount of noise on the ones of the dam: They were both taken at ISO 100 so surely there shouldn't be any noise.....should there? The noise reduction on the camera (D60) was turned off but surely it is not necessary at such a low sensitivity setting?

All shots here were put through some PPing in my trial version of Capture NX 2, but I have checked out the originals and they have noise too. Initially, the dam ones were a little underexposed and because of the dull weather, I turned up the saturation.

I would appreciate your assistance on this as it is annoying me.









Thanks folks.

Nice photos, but that header of yours sure doesn't......
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Thanks,

What's wrong with it? It sums up the post perfectly.

I like your two boats on the shore best, the others look good as well. I don't see noticable noise on my monitror, but don't doubt you can see it when viewed with magnification. I'm also a D60 user and have noticed noise under the certain conditions, specifically in areas like the grey sky in your dam photos and also blue skies.

After printing many similar images to 8x10, this noise isn't highly visible to me. I've noticed aggresive cropping and post processing is to be avoided. Also shooting as far to the right as possible, bordering on overexposure is also helpful. I apply noise reduction in photoshop as needed to reduce the visible noise if necessary.
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chris
WSSA #98

Thanks for your imput: The noise appears only to be visible in the dam shots (or should that be "damn" shots) so I was wondering if it was something to do with underexposure, which mirrors your sentiments. Would turning on the on-board Noise Reduction help?

Is this a problem with all DLSRs or just the D60?

.............I didn't pick up the noise on my monitor, shots looked ok ..........
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Jon in Thailand

http://www.flickr.com/photos/af2899/
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...will introduce noise. Plus your PP seems to be a bit heavy on the saturation in the first image (the grass is too green), which will also accent noise. Levels adjustments compress tones and can make noise more visible as can shadows/highlight adjustments, curves, brightness, etc. The better the exposure, the less noise will come into play.
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http://www.katscan.smugmug.com

Ahhh, thank you. Perhaps this photography thing is pretty tricky after all, lol.

Looks like I should take more time to get the exposure right in the first place :0)

mikey74 said:

Ahhh, thank you. Perhaps this photography thing is pretty tricky
after all, lol.

Looks like I should take more time to get the exposure right in the
first place :0)

Click to expand...

Bingo!

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http://www.katscan.smugmug.com

yes, the in camera noise reduction will help and I believe it is active to some extent at 800 iso and above, but I leave NR off and post process if necessary.

I don't think the noise level of the D60 is that much worse than other dslrs in its class, but certainly not its strong suit. Actually IMO, it's about a stop worse than the D40 in my unscientific tests.

To make the best of the situation, I'm trying to do the following: expose to the right, really push the image to the bright side and make the best use of the dynamic range. Process with View NX that has a very good highlight retrieval, or photoshop for minor tweaks, and use as much of the image as possible. I used to "shoot first, crop later" but am trying to get away from that. And of course use as low an iso as you can get away with. Until I can afford a D700 !
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chris
WSSA #98

mikey74 said:

I have checked out the originals and they have
noise too. Initially, the dam ones were a little underexposed and
because of the dull weather, I turned up the saturation.

Click to expand...

Exposure is critical to avoid noise. I find the more accurate my exposure, the less noise I have, even at 1600 on my D70. If I try to push the exposure at all, noise rears its head.

-Raf

well, you got your help, last 2 pics are fine, maybe last pic has a bit tight crop....
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